Personal information manager (PIM) applications are increasingly common as lives become more complex and require organization. Such applications are typically executed on a processor of a personal computer, regardless of desktop or laptop configuration. However, as the information data items, such as e-mail messages, calendar events, voice mail messages, contacts in an address book, memos or notes, appointments and task items, recorded in a PIM application can be useful outside of the office or home environment, a market has developed for portable, handheld devices that execute a PIM application to make the data items available, even when away from the main personal computer. Exemplary such devices are known as PocketPC™ devices and Palm™ devices, depending on the operating system executed on the device. Such devices may also include devices referred to as “Smart Phones”. Again, dependent upon the operating system executed on the device, the device may be known as a PocketPC™ device or a Palm™ device. Such a device may also run an alternative operating system such as a Symbian operating system or a Blackberry operating system. Often a program is executed on the personal computer that allows a user to synchronize the data items maintained by a PIM application executed on the personal computer with the data items maintained by a PIM application executed on a portable, handheld computer. Alternatively, rather than maintaining the data items in a PIM application executed on a personal computer, the personal computer may execute a client PIM application to create, view and edit data items provided by an enterprise server.
PIM applications often allow the association of a category with each data item maintained by the PIM application to assist in organization and searching. For example, a user may associate each contact in the address book with either a “Business” category or a “Personal” category. Given the comparatively greater computing power available from a modern personal computer compared to a modern portable, handheld computer, many additional features are typically found on a PIM application executed on a personal computer than a PIM application executed on a portable, handheld computer. Currently, Outlook™ 2002 by marketed by Microsoft™ of Redmond, Wash., supports the association of more than one category with a data item (such as a contact). For instance, a particular contact may be associated with a “Personal” category as well as a “University Friends” category. Unfortunately, many known PIM applications for execution on handheld computers only allow for the association of a single category with a data item, if at all. Among those known PIM applications that associate a single category with a data item, the number of available categories is often limited, as is the number of characters per category name. For example, in the current Palm™ operating system, marketed by PalmSource, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., the user is restricted to defining a total of 15 categories and limited to 15 characters per category name.
Clearly, it would be of use to allow for data items in a PIM application executed on a handheld computer to be associated with more than one category and that the association lend itself to efficient category-based filtering.